Professional Pest Controller issue 92

President foreword: I know where the summer goes

Last time we spoke I started by wishing us all for better weather – well we certainly got that, didn’t we? I hope that the heatwave has resulted in positive outcomes for you and your business.

I was delighted to announce the launch of ‘BPCA Registered’ at our AGM back in June. In providing a development framework for our members, supported by an in-house CPD scheme, BPCA Registered forms a building block within our strategy to lead and educate the professional sector, while exploring the potential for a viable licensing structure. During the announcement we launched a consultation process where we asked for the views of our membership on how we should implement and manage the detail of the initiative. We’ve received plenty of great input and, now that this process is closed, the Staff team is collating the results and feeding that into detailed plans. For more details see page 48. The initiative represents a big step forward for us, but only represents one part of us delivering upon the broader strategy we’re working to.

Some of you may have heard about BPCA Registered through the regular tweets that you receive from the Association’s social media accounts. Well, the Staff team has been rightly rewarded for the work done on our social media platforms, winning the Best Practice Award for Social Media 2018 at last month’s Trade Association Forum awards evening. Many congratulations to Ben and Scott, who lead our social media efforts. Like it or not, in our fast-paced lives social media offers a highly-effective mechanism for us to keep you in the loop, and praise like this from our peers in the associations trade suggests we’re on the right track – keep tweeting away guys!

Many of you will remember the inaugural British Pest Management Awards as part of the Association’s 75th anniversary celebration dinner in 2017. This was a terrific evening, celebrating outstanding contributions to professional pest management within public health and associated sectors. Now established as a biannual event, held on the middle evening of PestEx, planning is well underway for the 2019 event to be held on 20 March. As such, we warmly encourage all of you to consider nominating colleagues, companies and individuals for the individual awards which make up the BPMAs. More details of the categories, nomination requirements and judging panel can be found on page 38. When considering the value that together we bring to society, I often reflect upon the question of ’what would our world look like without us?’ Let’s take this opportunity to celebrate what we do in managing public health pests, and continue to raise the profile of what the Association and wider industry delivers.

It’s a busy quarter ahead for BPCA. Details of the 2019 Regional Forums have now been announced, which remain a great tool to help with the continual personal development journey which we all need to keep working on. No matter how long we’ve been in our Industry, there is always more to learn, and evolving regulatory and pest trends to keep up-to-date with, isn’t there?

We’ve talked about the BPMAs, which straddle the two days of the UK’s leading pest management trade show, PestEx. The event will once again be held at ExCeL London on 20-21 March 2019. I confirm that registration for the event is now officially open! Why not put the event in your diary and get yourself registered now?

You’ll remember that early into my tenure as President, we implemented and shared a biannual diary for BPCA, communicating many of the key events in the rolling two-year cycle of the Association. Incredibly, over the next few months, it will once again be time for us to undertake our annual review of our progress in delivering our strategy. While the strategy is now positioned at the heart of everything that we do, we agreed that we would have a ‘line in the sand’ moment each year for the Executive Board, committees and Staff team to pause and review our progress to-date in delivering against our plans. As ever, wider member input on this is welcome.

Shortly after the strategy review, the Staff team and officers will begin the process of creating a budget for the coming year, and soon after that the detailed business plan, before sign-off by the Executive Board. If we get this right, we’ll be able to continue to develop the leading service we offer our membership and work towards delivering the challenging but hugely exciting initiatives that we’ve identified as crucial to our strategy. Who says things slow down over the summer months?

Have a great end to your summer, and enjoy any time off you may be taking in the weeks ahead.